Pls give your thoughts on Kalim
*looks at my blog name*, *looks at my twst character tier list* oh boy…
Well clearly I don’t like the guy. I’ve been coming around on him a little bit ever since book 7.5 when TWST finally admitted he’s a bad person.
I’ve always disliked him. Bubbly and cutesie and cheery without an ounce of cynicism or skepticism has never been my jam, and you know, to each their own on that. It was the actual contents of his story that took him from a character I disliked to a character I hated, however. The fact that the game has every character except Jamil, Azul, Trey, and Cater, entirely gloss over the fact that Kalim owns a SLAVE (United Nations, 1956 Supplementary Convention the Abolition of Slavery, Article 1 section c point iv) was what really put me off. Both within the fandom, and for a long time within the narrative, it felt like Kalim’s complicity in this system was entirely overlooked. Fictional characters are allowed to be bad people, people are allowed to like characters who do truly despicable things, but the fact that until book 7.5 the game completely ignored its own implications was icky to me! And it ruined the character of Kalim for me!
You have this character who owns another character, but has been led to believe by their circumstances that this character is their friend, and wants to be captive. This is interesting on its own. The fact that, when all is said and done and the servant breaks down to the master, willing to kill himself and everyone for a chance at freedom, and the master still holds to this delusion that they are friends, that’s interesting! What isn’t interesting is when everyone treats him like a good person. “I’m sure Kalim would free Jamil if he knew,” people say. And regardless of this being proven definitively untrue in 7.5, he already knew when people started saying it! He’s known since book 4! Jamil told him he hated him and didn’t want to be his friend, and he ignored it! And the fans ignored that he ignored it! And that ignorance of his willing ignorance led to confusion in book 7.5 when this happens:
Kalim in this scene prioritizes his own comfort over Jamil’s boundaries. Jamil says that he is not Kalim’s friend and he has adjusted his tone to that of a retainer’s so that Kalim does not think him his friend. He taunts Kalim because he is rightfully sick of him. Jamil cannot imagine a world without Kalim, and simultaneously he can never be happy in one, this is established in book 7. Putting up this professional shield is Jamil’s way of taking some kind of control over his circumstances, and Kalim, finally stepping into his status, orders him to relinquish that control. Kalim solidifies in this scene that he is just as selfish as everyone else at this school, despite his image.
I find his recent development interesting. The game does a lot to show how arrogant he is, how incompetent he is, how oblivious he is, how selfish he is. Honestly, if we were to go on just the game, the game as it stands now in 2026 and not 2022 when I got into it, I would say he’s probably one of my favorites just because of how complicatedly evil he is.
But I’m a fandom blog, on a fandom platform, that reentered TWST in 2026 through the fandom. Kalim gets his own category of hatred from me because he is one of my favorite characters to think about, and one of my least favorite characters to see in events or in the fandom.
“Kalim is smart!” Name one thing he’s smart at. “He has a high EQ!” High enough that he couldn’t realize even after being explicitly told that Jamil hates him? Every character in the game calls him out for social unawareness. “He’s under so much pressure as the heir of the Asim family” Pressure to survive maybe. His parents spoil him. This is explicitly stated. They love him. They got him a personal slave that they place all the pressure on instead. His trauma with being kidnapped is real, but many Kalim fans use this to claim he’s had it worse than Jamil.
We can do trauma Olympics here I think. I think it is allowed when we are considering the trauma between a slave and his master. Jamil has had to fight people off to protect Kalim. Jamil is Kalim’s poison tester and has gotten sick from it before. Jamil was born into a life he didn’t choose because of the Asim family’s legacy of slave ownership. Jamil was born into a life he didn’t choose where he is expected to die for his master should anything go wrong. Jamil was forced to do the work of two people in school so that Kalim could graduate in high academic standing. Jamil has had an understanding from a young age that his family’s lives are on his shoulders. Jamil’s mother has had to scold and hurt him to keep him safe from the Asims. Jamil has had to stand second to an incompetent moron. Jamil has had to feign friendship with someone he despises. Jamil has had to deal with Kalim following him, harassing him, enmeshing him, interrupting his breaks, preventing him from taking paths towards a semi-normal existence.
To turn to a real world and modern comparison, in many countries that possess the kind of slavery that the Asim family practices, slaves still have very limited free time. If a slave is sick he can go to the hospital on his own. A slave can become friends with other slaves. A slave can often times leave the property without being accompanied by his master. It is implied within the text of the game that this is what was supposed to happen with Jamil. He was supposed to be able to take breaks. He was supposed to be able to leave his own life. He had friends in middle school! He got accepted into a prestigious magic school and was granted permission to attend! But Kalim followed him everywhere. There was no break for Jamil, no image of freedom, no time away. It was torture to him, to spend every minute with Kalim, torture to the point he tried to kill himself over it.
And everyone centers Kalim’s struggle.
Oh poor Kalim, he’s emotionally dependent on Jamil and Jamil wants nothing to do with him. Oh poor Kalim, people keep trying to assassinate him but his body guard servant retainer slave saved him. Oh poor Kalim, he watched his “friend” get poisoned and it traumatized him. Jamil is selfish for wanting to hurt our sunshine boy! Jamil is evil for wanting him dead! Sweetest sweetest baby autistic baby boy who cannot be held accountable for any of his actions because he is mentally ill and neurodivergent.
Kalim will never free Jamil. Kalim is one of the wealthiest men in the world. Kalim’s family owns many slaves. Kalim is complicit. Kalim has his complicity highlighted, he doubles down. Sunshine angel baby boy is a slave owner and he is aware of this fact and the fandom acts like he is not. He knows Jamil wants to be free. He has begun to recognize that he is part of the system that makes Jamil want to kill himself. A larger part of that system than fans give him credit for, and he tightens his grip. He orders Jamil to be his friend. He is the most evil character in the main cast of Twisted Wonderland because he possesses the greatest capacity for evil, because he represents what we in the modern day consider THE GREATEST EVIL. The Jamil Kalim loves does not exist and he is killing Jamil to make him into that. My problem is ignorance to this fact.
ellievsbear
gracieabrams
origamiaround
gummygunk
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
